Gerrit Walter Gong (born December 23, 1953) is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as assistant to the president of Brigham Young University (BYU) for planning and assessment. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourteenth most senior apostle in the church.
Biography
Gong was born in 1953 in Redwood City, California, to Walter Gong and his wife, the former Jean Char, and raised in Palo Alto, California. Gerrit was named after Gerrit de Jong because his mother had lived with de Jong and his family while she was a student at BYU. He had a close almost familial relationship with de Jong and would refer to him as "Grandpa de Jong." His mother's family are ethnic Chinese in Hawaii, and his father's family lived in California and other parts of the United States after his ancestors emigrated from China in the late nineteenth century.
During a press conference related to the open house for the rededication of the Washington D.C. Temple, Gong shared that one of his first memories was of being sealed to his parents in a temple of the LDS Church.
Education and career
Gong graduated from Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, in 1971. He served as an LDS Church missionary in Taiwan. He graduated from BYU in 1977 with a bachelor of arts. Gong then studied international relations at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving a master's degree in 1979 and a D.Phil. in 1980.
In 1985, Gong became a special assistant to the U.S. secretary of state. Gong was a professor at various times at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University. He later served as a special assistant in the United States State Department, as well as special assistant to the ambassador at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China. He also held the Freeman Chair in China studies and was later the Asia Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He joined this latter institution in 1989. From at least 2002, Gong served as special assistant to the president of BYU for planning and assessment.
Even before joining the administration at BYU, Gong was involved in educational policy issues. He served as a member of the United States Department of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity and participated in multiple national education summits.
Marriage and family
Gong is married to Susan Lindsay, a daughter of Richard P. Lindsay. This means that Gong is the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in a multi-racial marriage. They first met when Gong was a BYU student who would give presentations on Taiwan's culture to missionaries about to depart for Taiwan from the Missionary Training Center, among whom was Lindsay. They began dating a few years later, in the summer when Gong had returned from Oxford to spend a few weeks with his parents, during a time his father was a BYU professor. They continued their courtship after Gong returned to Oxford while Lindsay continued her studies at BYU, which has led to Gong's humorously asserting that there is no question he got a degree in international relations. The Gongs married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 4, 1980. Their marriage was performed by apostle David B. Haight, who had connections to their families from his time in California. (Haight had helped to overcome some of the misgivings some family members had about the interracial marriage.) Gong and his wife are the parents of four sons. Prior to joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia.